15/10/2013 10:21With 5 European medallists Lube Banca is ready to take on group of death 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men

Macerata, Italy, October 15, 2013. Italy’s Lube Banca Marche MACERATA will open its campaign in the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League this coming October 22 playing a home match against last year’s bronze medallists Zenit KAZAN. This past June, as the DOL was held in Vienna, the Italian team was assigned to Pool E, one of the toughest in the League Round, as it includes, apart from Zenit, also the reigning champions of Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK as well as Austria’s rookie Posojilnica AICH/DOB. “Our Pool,” said the general manager Stefano Recine on Monday at the press conference held to discuss goals and expectations ahead of the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League, “is certainly very tough with two Russian teams, Zenit and Lokomotiv, who won this competition in 2012 and 2013 respectively. This means we have to perform at the highest level right from the start of the League Round if we want to make the Playoffs”.

The roster for the 2013/2014 season includes five players who recently medalled at the 2013 CEV VELUX EuroVolley in Copenhagen: Italy’s Ivan Zaytsev, Simone Parodi, and Jiri Kovar won silver there, while Marko Podrascanin and Dragan Stankovic got bronze with Serbia’s national team. Lube Banca Marche MACERATA also signed Poland’s superstar Bartosz Kurek who will debut this year in Italy after spending most of his career with PGE Skra in his native country and the last season in Russia with Dinamo MOSCOW.

“We have a very good team” said Lube’s mentor Alberto Giuliani “but we shall expect tough matches in the League Round. The six players who participated in the 2013 CEV VELUX EuroVolley joined us only 10 days ago, so we still haven’t had the chance to practice with the complete roster for a long time as we wished to. In our Pool there are three teams that can all vie for first place so this means that every point of every game will be extremely important to determine the final standing of the pool”.

Ivan Zaytsev is Lube’s team captain for the coming season. “This first match against Zenit KAZAN already puts at stake some very important points for the qualification to the second round. Our group is very strong, we absolutely have to win all our home matches starting with the first coming up on Tuesday with Zenit”.

Lube Banca Marche MACERATA is participating in Europe’s elite club competition for the eighth time; this side claimed the trophy back in 2002 as the final four was held in Opole (Poland) and made it among the top four also in 2007 and 2009.